Waking Dream
by Marauder
Summary: When the Death Eaters attack Hogwarts, Snape and Tonks escape into the tunnels. After days have gone by and they have not found the way out, the tunnels take on a sureal quality. SnapexTonks. AU since HBP.


They had been in the tunnels for over two days; they had been there for fifty hours and nine minutes when the batteries in Tonks's watch gave out. That seemed as though it were a very long time ago, but time seems endless when the scene is unchanging and the food has run out. They had no wands. Snape's had been seized by Rabastan Lestrange during the battle in the Great Hall and Tonks's had broken on impact when they jumped into the tunnels.

It was so cold that their breath hung in the air like a fog.

"It is imperative that we keep walking," Snape said. "You cannot expect us to escape by sitting on the ground."

Tonks closed her eyes. They weren't going to escape. They had been around and around every tunnel and had never found the way out.

She felt thin yet strong fingers clasp around her wrist. "Miss Tonks, you are going to stand up and follow me if it kills you," hissed Snape.

Amazed at the irony, she smiled in spite of herself. "Are you always this polite to people you threaten?"

Snape's voice hovered on the edge of full-blown rage. "As I have told you approximately ten times in the last two godforsaken days," he said softly, "I am not in the habit of addressing women by their surnames. It amazes me that a former member of my own house would lack the self-respect and stamina to fight for her own survival."

She opened her eyes to see his sneering mouth and raised eyebrows inches from her face. "You've forgotten," she said. "I was miserable in Slytherin and begged to be re-Sorted."

"But you were not," he snapped. "You were not because you are supposedly determined and ambitious, if I am to believe Dumbledore."

His hand was still on her wrist, though the grip had softened. With a quick thrust she shook it off. "Bloody hell, Snape, why do you care if I get out of this or not? Wouldn't it be a lovely final revenge for you, leaving Sirius's cousin to die? Would you feel like you'd won, then?"

Snape crossed his arms over his chest. "I see the cheerful grins and 'wotcher' have disappeared," he said.

Tonks opened her mouth to retort, but suddenly the wall of the tunnel seemed like the ceiling and the entire place appeared to be tilting on a fulcrum. When she grabbed for the wall behind her it did not feel secure.

Something soft lay under her head, and when she looked she saw her boots neatly sitting against the opposite wall. "Snape?"

"On your left."

He was sitting with his knees drawn up to his chest; the dim light of the tunnels made shadows fall over his eyes. "Rest here for a while."

"You go on," Tonks said.

He stretched out his legs. "I need time to formulate a plan. When it is definite we are continuing."

In all the time she had known him he had been gaunt, but now his face was bordering on emaciated. "You look sick too," Tonks said. "Really. Perhaps you ought to rest as well." She reached up and rested three fingertips on his cheek. Snape endured the touch for a moment and then slowly pulled back.

After that Tonks did not know where the delirious hallucinations ended and reality began.

"It's soft," she murmured, sliding her fingers through his hair. Snape lay beside her. "Ought to be washed, but it isn't coarse like I thought it would be."

"No. It has always been very soft since the time I was young." Pale lips brushed against her ear.

"We might get out of here. If someone survived the battle in the Great Hall they'll know we went into the tunnels. They won't leave us here."

"Don't give up, Nymphie," Sirius said. "Don't. For me."

"I hate it when you call me Nymphie," said Tonks. "I'm not three years old anymore."

"I know." There was a clanking of chains as he stepped toward her.

"If you were real, you would know the way out of here," she said.

"The burning lasted for days," Snape said. Tonks's cheek rested against his left forearm, inhaling the scent of dirt and days-old sweat. "For the first two nights I was unable to sleep. I walked through Muggle London for hours on end, through the places of people I had sworn were inferior. Some of them sat on the benches and when they looked at me I thought they knew what I had done."

"Did you regret it then?"

"They could see my secrets. I wanted to kill them."

Her legs felt sore. One of Snape's hands rested on the small of her back.

"Severus." The tears poured between their two faces, leaving clean trails amidst the dust and grime. "It's so cold here."

"Lie closer to me."

"I'm scared."

"Of what?" Tonks could feel his heartbeat against her chest.

"Of dying here. Of you leaving me. Of me leaving you."

They clung to each other.

  
Her mother stood in front of them. "Oh God, Nymphadora – "

"Severus is cold, Mum, he's cold and he's breathing but I can't get him to wake up."

"We're going to get you two out of here."

"You won't!" cried Tonks. "You can't because you aren't real, like Sirius wasn't real and Severus isn't real. I think I might be the only one left who's real."

"Open your mouth," said a calm and matronly voice. "We're going to try for ten spoonfuls of broth today."

Tonks fought against the invasion of the spoon. "Don't! I won't have it, I don't know what it is – "

"It's chicken broth, dear, you've been eating it for three days now."

"Severus!" she screamed. "Severus, they're trying to poison me!"

"I think we're going to need a sedative," said another voice, this one low.

A cluster of purple balloons bobbed against the ceiling. Large grapes?

"How did you like your first solid food?" asked Tonks's father, who was sitting in a worn brown chair beside her bed.

She sat up slightly and blinked a few times. "I don't think I remember it."

"You ate a plum. The Healer said you wanted another one, but she thought it might be too hard on your stomach."

"How did she know I like plums?" Tonks asked faintly.

"Your friend Severus told him."

"Snape?"

Her father nodded.

Suddenly she remembered about the invasion of Hogwarts. "The battle, Dad, you've got to tell me what happened with the battle, I have – "

"The Order won."

"Oh."

"Seven casualties, five on their side and two on ours."

"Is Remus, is Harry, is – "

"Elphias Doge and Emmeline Vance."

Mentally, she understood this. Emotionally she did not.

"For the Death Eaters it was Crabbe, Nott, Dolohov, Rabastan Lestrange, and your aunt Bellatrix."

He stood in the doorway. "Hello, Tonks."

"Hello…Severus."

The customary black robes hung noticeably looser on his frame, and someone had cut his hair. He came in and walked over to the edge of her bed. "May I sit down?"

"Yes."

The bed dipped as he sat on the edge of the mattress. "I don't know exactly what happened in the tunnels," he said. "Did I tell you about receiving the Dark Mark, or was that only a delusion in my mind?"

"About walking through Muggle London?"

"So it was real." He pressed his lips together pensively; it was a strangely endearing mannerism, Tonks thought. "I remember something about you spilling an entire bottle of ink on your first day as an Auror."

"I told you that?"

"Yes."

"I must have done some strange things," she said.

He lowered his eyes. "There was one that I hope you will not find strange."

She tilted her head, curious. "What?"

"Never mind, it doesn't matter."

"No, it does!"

After a moment he looked up at her. "You kissed me," he said.

Tonks touched her lip. "Did I?"

"Perhaps not," said Severus, hurriedly standing. "Perhaps it was part of the hallucination. I will be seeing you – "

"Severus, wait."

He stopped but did not face her.

"Why wouldn't you leave me in the tunnels?" Tonks asked.

His shoulders slowly rose and fell. "I should think that would be obvious."

"Severus, sit back down, please."

There was a brief pause, and then he did, black robes against stark white sheets.

She took his hand, and wondered briefly if she were out of her mind. If so, she didn't care. "I hope it wasn't a hallucination."

He reached for her and hesitantly placed his hand on her neck, his eyes begging permission. Vulnerability; Tonks wondered how many other hidden sides there were to this man. She wanted to find out.

Severus leaned forward slightly. She kissed him on the mouth, first with closed lips and then with open. He tasted wet, and sweet.

"That was real," she said when they had parted.

He kissed her again. "Yes."


End file.
